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JMR Electronics Lightning Enclosures


jonoboyer

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Has anyone tried these JMR thunderbolt enclosures? Im specifically interested in this one

I need to build a eGPU setup for work. Specifically an eGPU setup that will pack the most punch without having to hack apart the enclosure or leave the case open.

I was thinking of going with:

Enclosure: JMR Lightning LTNG-XQ (assuming i will need to swap out the power supply for something around 1200w)

GPU: 2 x GTX 980 Ti SC

Any suggestions would be appreciated! My ultimate goal is to be able to render stuff from after effects with 12gb of vRAM and utilize the CUDA acceleration on my mid 2015 mbp 15" retina.

QUAD SLOT EXPANDER MODEL LTNG-XQ

The new JMR Lightning LTNG-XQ is a four-slot Thunderbolt-2 to PCIe expander! This is an Intel-Certified product featuring four x16 (mechanically, x4 electrically) PCIe expansion slots and quad 20Gbps Thunderbolt-2 I/O ports so other compatible Thunderbolt products may be daisy-chained beyond the Lightning product.

It has internal forced air cooling and is powered by an internal 460 Watt power supply, and is attractively packaged with a rugged powder coated finish. The LTNG-XQ works with all Thunderbolt-2 compatible PCIe peripheral devices; common applications include:

• SAS/SATA host bus adapters and RAID controller cards

• Video capture cards

• Fibre channel host bus adapters and RAID controller cards

• Audio interface cards

• 10GbE network adapter cards

• Graphical Processing Units (GPUs), RED Rocket-X cards

The LTNG-XQ supports all compatible PCIe cards, up to full-height and full-length peripherals. It provides extra DC power connections for GPUs requiring those connections.

Unique design: The LTNG-XQ is the only product on the market featuring four full-bandwidth PCIe slots, using two independent Thunderbolt™ 20Gbps bridge circuits: One Thunderbolt bridge drives two slots, and a second internal Thunderbolt bridge drives the other two slots. Connections to the host MacPRO include using two of the three available Thunderbolt bus connections to the Mac. Daisy-chain expansion beyond the LTNG-XQ is also available via its four Thunderbolt expansion ports.

The advantage of this architecture is enhanced operating bandwidth for demanding applications which will utilize all the 20Gbps bandwidth available from each Thunderbolt port. Models of the LTNG-XQ include internal hardware (SAS) RAID controllers and eight RAID drives (rotating or SSD), and the storage array can operate at “full speed” (1200+ MB/s transfer rates) using one bus while other demanding peripherals can operate at full speed using the other bus!

Dimensions: 9.5”(H) x 6.75”(W) x 16”(D)

Weight: 18 lbs (not including installed PCIe peripheral cards)

The Lightning products are all Made in U.S.A. by the leading and oldest provider of computer peripheral support products, JMR ELECTRONICS INC.

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Has anyone tried these JMR thunderbolt enclosures? Im specifically interested in this one

I need to build a eGPU setup for work. Specifically an eGPU setup that will pack the most punch without having to hack apart the enclosure or leave the case open.

I was thinking of going with:

Enclosure: JMR Lightning LTNG-XQ (assuming i will need to swap out the power supply for something around 1200w)

GPU: 2 x GTX 980 Ti SC

Any suggestions would be appreciated! My ultimate goal is to be able to render stuff from after effects with 12gb of vRAM and utilize the CUDA acceleration on my mid 2015 mbp 15" retina.

US$1399!! These guys are dreaming. These multi-slot options are better value:

http://forum.techinferno.com/enclosures-adapters/7872-us%24979-sonnet-echo-express-iii-d-enclosure-16gbps-tb2.html

http://forum.techinferno.com/implementation-guides-apple/8199-2013-13-macbook-pro-gtx980%4016gbps-tb2-netstor-na211tb-win8-1-osx10-10-%5Bgoalque.html

Just be mindful that @squinks' SLI Macbook eGPU implementations reverted to single slots due to booting problems. That's because these 3-slot devices use an extra PCIe bridge to share out the PCie link to 3 slots. There's also @nesone's dual TITAN_Z implementation using AKiTiO Thunder2 boxes:

http://forum.techinferno.com/implementation-guides-apple/7326-2013-13-macbook-pro-gtx780ti-sli%4016gbps-tb2-sonnet-ee-sel-win8-1-%5Bsquinks%5D.html#post100318

http://forum.techinferno.com/implementation-guides-apple/8579-2013-13-macbook-pro-2-x-titan_z%4016gbps-tb2-akitio-thunder2-osx10-10-%5Bnesone%5D.html#post116923

In which case you might want to look at:

http://forum.techinferno.com/enclosures-adapters/7205-us%24189-akitio-thunder2-pcie-box-16gbps-tb2.html

http://forum.techinferno.com/enclosures-adapters/9638-us%24233-highpoint-rocketstor-6361a-pcie-chassis-16gbps-tb2.html

http://forum.techinferno.com/enclosures-adapters/7633-us%24314-sonnet-echo-express-sel-16gbps-tb2.html

@goalque successully used 2x R9_280X cards in a Netstor NA211TB

http://forum.techinferno.com/implementation-guides-apple/8585-2014-15-macbook-pro-2x-r9_280x%4016gbps-tb2-netstor-na211tb-win8-1-osx-%5Bgoalque%5D.html#post117016

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US$1399!! These guys are dreaming. These multi-slot options are better value:

http://forum.techinferno.com/enclosures-adapters/7872-us%24979-sonnet-echo-express-iii-d-enclosure-16gbps-tb2.html

http://forum.techinferno.com/implementation-guides-apple/8199-2013-13-macbook-pro-gtx980%4016gbps-tb2-netstor-na211tb-win8-1-osx10-10-%5Bgoalque.html

Just be mindful that @squinks' SLI Macbook eGPU implementations reverted to single slots due to booting problems. That's because these 3-slot devices use an extra PCIe bridge to share out the PCie link to 3 slots. There's also @nesone's dual TITAN_Z implementation using AKiTiO Thunder2 boxes:

The price didn't really matter to me due to the fact that my work would be paying for it. But after some more research and being apprehensive about SLI vs. Daisy Chaining, I think Im gonna go with the Sonnet Echo Express III-D with a 6gb GTX 980 Ti. Once I hit the wall with that I'll most likely just duplicate the setup and daisy chain them.

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